Murder mum: first pictures
Two sisters who died alongside their mother were murdered by their father who went on to commit suicide.
The body of Richard Hicks was found in the River Humber today following the discovery of the bodies of Phoebe Hicks, four, her sister Emma, two, and their mother Joanne Catley, 33.
The baby of the family, 13-month-old Lily, had earlier been found unharmed inside Hicks's car which was abandoned close to the Humber Bridge last night.
Attempts to trace the car's owner led police to a house in Webster Mews in Healing, Lincolnshire. There they found the children's bodies with that of their mother. Hicks's body was found following an all-night search by police and coastguards.
Shocked friends of Ms Catley today described the former pub landlady as a "happy go lucky" woman who had given up work to spend more time with her children.
Police released a portrait of the three as it emerged that Ms Catley had taken out a restraining order against Hicks. Friends of the couple in the village of Stallingborough, three miles from Healing, said that twice in the last month police had been called to the pub the couple ran, after Hicks attacked his partner.
Ms Catley left Hicks, her partner for four years, only two weeks ago. She bought the house in Healing where she was living with the children.
The couple had until one month ago run the Green Man pub in Stallingborough. The pub's new landlord Nigel Exley, 46, said: "He was known to have physically abused her. The police were called here three weeks ago for the second time in a month.
"His violence had caused them to break up. She had moved out, left the pub and started a new life. He was working as a chef in another restaurant but could not come to terms with her leaving.
"She was a very nice lady. She didn't have a bad word for anybody. She decided to leave and concentrate on her kids. She was very popular with the customers. She was a happygo-lucky type of girl."
Jean Rungard, 55, a friend and former employee of Ms Catley's described Hicks as a "violent man".
"We knew he hit her. It got so bad she had to take out a restraining order. It's tragic it came to this and it seems bizarre the police were unable to protect herr."
In recent weeks Hicks had been working in the kitchen of The Haven, a hotel in Grimsby. One member of staff there said today: "We are devastated by this, it seems unbelievable."
Humberside police say they found Hicks's blue Nissan Micra in Barton, near the Humber Bridge, at about 6.40 last night. Baby Lily was taken to hospital in Scunthorpe as a precaution-and later placed in the care of her maternal grandmother.
The case bears a chilling resemblance to a recent stabbing in Suffolk. On Sunday the body of Dr Jayaprakash Chiti, 41, and his twoyearold son Pranau were discovered in the River Orwell. His car was found abandoned next to a bridge. It appears that Dr Chiti threw himself off the bridge while clutching the boy to his chest.
The body of his wife, Dr Anupama Damera, 36, was found at the family's home near Ipswich. She had been stabbed several times. The couple's other son, Ani, 11, was in the house but was unharmed.
